The terrorism case against an Alabama man accused of planning to wage Islamic jihad in Africa may hinge on just how well he knew a man on the FBI's most-wanted terrorist list.

Federal prosecutors portrayed Randy Wilson as an Islamic radical who wanted to reunite with Omar Hammami. He is an American who also grew up in Alabama but has since become one of the most well-known jihadists in Somalia.

Wilson and another American who lived in Alabama for the last year, Mohammad Abdul Rahman Abukhdair, are accused of plotting to leave the country to join Islamic radicals fighting in North Africa.

The two men were arrested separately about two weeks ago in Georgia. Wilson was arrested as he tried to board a plane at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Wilson's attorney has described him as a devout Muslim who was taking his family to Mauritania to study Islam, not wage jihad.